Title: the Achievement Gap between Asian-American Students and White Students
Introduction:
Asian-Americans constitute a significant minority in the U.S. and are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in this country. It's well known that compared with white students, Asian-American kids tend to get higher grades, do better on standardized tests and are more likely to go to college including elite universities. What's the most suitable explanation for it? Are they born to be smarter? And what's other difference between them? are Asian-American students doing well in all perspective? In this passage, the reasons for the achievement gap are provided through five articles as follows. And they also offer lots of information about Asian-American students in other perspectives. You will have a brief idea of Asian-American and their cultures.
Annotated Bibliography:
Citation:
Goyette, K., & Xie, Y. (1999). Educational Expectations of Asian American Youths: Determinants and Ethnic Differences. Sociology of Education, 72(1), 22–36. doi:10.2307/2673184
Summary:
This study explored three factors that may explain why Asian American have higher educational expectations than do whites: favorable socioeconomic and background characteristics, demonstrated academic ability, and parents' high expectations. With data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, the authors used linear and logistic multivariate regression models to examine these differences in educational expectations. The analyses indicated that although all Asian American ethnic groups have higher expectations than whites, the higher educational expectations of Asian American groups that are well assimilated into U.S. society are principally influenced by socioeconomic and demographic factors. Parental expectations generally explain a large portion of children's high educational expectations for all Asian American groups.
Reaction:
This article broke a frame where Asian-Americans are always treated as a homogeneous group and emphasized that ethnic differences should be explored. This study concluded three reasons that can be explanatory to Asian Americans' higher educational expectations and, to a certain extent, higher educational achievement. To my surprise, favorable socioeconomic factor plays an important role in affecting students' educational expectations because I just attributed the differences to the mental reasons before and this passage really reminded me that I should analyze problem from different aspects and need to consider as much factors as I can. I learned that parents' socioeconomic status has strong and positive effects on children's achievement. This passage explained in detailed about the difference between Asian-American and white American on educational expectations.
This article maintained two main differences between Asian-American and white American, that are outperforming white students and less psychologically adjusted and socially engaged in school than their white peers. The reasons behind it are the cultural belief which is there is a strong connection between efforts and achievements and parents' control to reinforce the qualities in positively affecting academic performance. This passage pointed out that there was no convincing evidence that the reason is genetic and denied the influences of family wealth. The poverty rates of Chinese and Vietnamese are higher than they are for whites. However the disadvantaged children of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrant families routinely surpass the educational attainment of their native-born, middle-class white peers. On the other hand, Asian-American students scored lower than white students in terms of positive feeling towards themselves and spend less time with their friends and they may feel stressed because of the high educational expectation from their parents.
Reaction:
Thinking about myself, I feel that that cultural belief is very true. Just as said in this article, we believe that cognitive abilities can be improved by our efforts. And we have many old sayings to emphasize the importance of efforts. However, I didn't know the existence of this belief until I read this article so I guess this belief has already became our subconsciousness.
This passage struck me because of its last sentence, that is "their 'outsider' status may undercut their achievement success and prevent their full integration into American society". I remembered several of my friends who have been to America for a long time and they told me that they felt it is not their home and they are not belong to it. What the differences between those social Asian-American and other ones? Are those social ones really feel they already integrated into American society? How about those who were born here?
This article firstly introduced some basic information about Asian-American by explained 29 distinct subgroups among Asian-American and different reasons for migration. After that, the author analyzed the "whiz kids" image which is a misleading stereotype that masks individuality and conceals real problems. The author emphasized that there are diverse individuals with diverse difficulties in learning among Asian-American students. And their educational achievement cannot be attributed to natural superiority or shared cultural and family values, but rather to the interaction of those cultural and family values with social factors. Next, the author introduced many cultural believes that Asian people hold to explain some behaviors of Asian-American students. This article is unique for putting up with many suggestions for teachers when they teach Asian-American students.
Reaction:
I think this passage explained further about the effect of cultural believes on Asian-American academic and behavioral differences with white students. Respect for elders, deferred gratification, and discipline; value educational achievement, respect authority, feel responsibility for relatives, and show self control; view school failure as a lack of will, and to address this problem by increasing parental restrictions; more dependent, conforming, and willing to place family welfare over individual wishes than are other American children and self-effacement. These are all cultural background of Asian-American students by which you may understand several behaviors of them. Contrary to only concentrating on the bright side, the author maintained that there are many Asian-American students are in need of help from teachers and other people thus we cannot always hold this stereotype and ignoring the differences. Although there are many profound reasons for Asian-American students' lower self-satisfactory and less engagement to classes, teachers for them can still help them to adapt to American cultures and build self-image, such as have peers helping them, encouraging them frequently, learn the differences between cultures and maybe a little bit language to draw their attention and to show interests, alleviating the disjuncture Asian children may experience between school and home.
Yale Law School professor Amy Chua answered the question "Why do Asian American students outpace everyone else academically?" with "tiger mom" a few years ago, but the first part of this article pointed that with all the economic resources at her disposal — she and her husband are Yale professors with highly-educated parents — her children’s success is just as likely the result of socioeconomic and cultural advantages. "The Success Frame and Achievement Paradox: The Costs and Consequences for Asian Americans" authors, Min Zhou, professor of sociology and Asian American Studies at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles, currently on leave at Nanyang Technological University, and Jennifer Lee, professor of sociology at the Univ. of California at Irvine, wrote that a better way to understand Asian American academic success is to look at families who don’t have resources and succeed nonetheless. Their findings are pretty straightforward: Young Asian Americans have all kinds of good role models to emulate. Their communities and families make sure they get extra help when they need it. Their families, even on limited resources, manage to seek out and move to neighborhoods with good schools. And they aspire to success with specific goals in mind: medicine, law, engineering and pharmacy. And they aim for the best schools.
Reaction:
This article raised an unique opinion about the reason behind the higher academic achievement of Asian-American students that is searching for favorable neighborhood for children. And this passage used a lot of examples to further explain the definition of "doing well in school" for parents of Asian-American students. I was reminded many details about that. For example, when I was in elementary school, my mother got angry because my score was 98 instead of 100. I agree with what the author said that is such high standard has positive and negative impact. "If expectations are that high, many young people will try to meet them. They will get into Stanford and they will get that PhD. The downside is that those who fall short — the ‘A-minus’ student’ — wind up feeling alienated from their ethnicity. In short, they feel less Asian and more, well, American."
Comparing the three competing theories to explain the higher academic achievement of Asian-American students, the author agreed with the one that hard work is the main factor. And the author analyzed the reasons that why Asian-American students work harder than other white peers. Asian-Americans have a stronger belief in the rewards of hard work: Asian Americans were more likely than their white classmates to believe a person can learn to be good at math -- and less likely to believe it's an inborn ability. And the "optimism" of recent U.S. immigrants might play a role in Asian Americans' academic success. The favorable resources from community is also mentioned as a reason. At the same time, this passage also pointed that Asian-American students were less likely to say they felt good about themselves, and reported more conflicts with their parents.
Reaction:
This article is the last one that I read and to my surprise, it serves just like a conclusion. It helped me reorganize the information I get so far and make my mind clearer. I agree that hard work is the main factor of academic difference between Asian-American students and white ones, but I think the reasons for hard work should be emphasized as a cultural reason for this achievement gap. Culture really plays an important role in every aspect of our lives. And the socioeconomic factors I think cannot be ignored and neglected because it's the base of any kind of activity of human beings.
Relevance of problem in the U.S.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the Asian American population, including those of multiracial and Hispanic and Latino ancestry, had increased to 18,205,898 by 2011. And among America's major racial categories, Asian Americans have the highest educational qualifications. The demographic growth trend and the percentage of people from different country who get bachelor or higher level college education are showed as the following charts. Thus, to explore the reason for Asian-American students' good performance is necessary and useful for people from other culture to draw lesson from.
Conclusion:
There are three explanation competing for the achievement gap between Asian-American students and white students. Some people believe that Asian-Americans' higher educational achievements are decided by something genetic, which is not admitted by most people now because some research found that the gap is widening with time and not big initially. Second theory is that because the socioeconomic status of Asian-American parents are general better, they can provide good resource and model for their kids. However, some scholars think that this is not persuasive because many Asian-American students who live in poverty also do well academically. The third one which is the most acceptable one is cultural reasons. Asian-Americans believe the relationship between hard word and success and they think cognitive ability can be improved by efforts, thus they work harder than their peers. And parents' high standards for them is also a contribution. However, it is also because of some cultural norms that Asian-American students scored lower on self-confidence and spend less time making friends and adapt to American culture difficultly.
Overall reflection
Maybe to many people's surprise, the reason behind the higher academic and lower social performance is just such easy: hard work. And what behind hard work is still the familiar term: culture. Culture affects Asian-American students' thinking, behavior, study and it should be the first reason to attribute when you find differences between Asian-American and white students. Nation's culture is bone-deep for everyone so although there are some Asian-Americans born in America and grow in America, you can still find cultural features on them. There is no good or bad culture. Every kind of culture should be respected.
Title: the Achievement Gap between Asian-American Students and White Students
Introduction:
Asian-Americans constitute a significant minority in the U.S. and are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in this country. It's well known that compared with white students, Asian-American kids tend to get higher grades, do better on standardized tests and are more likely to go to college including elite universities. What's the most suitable explanation for it? Are they born to be smarter? And what's other difference between them? are Asian-American students doing well in all perspective? In this passage, the reasons for the achievement gap are provided through five articles as follows. And they also offer lots of information about Asian-American students in other perspectives. You will have a brief idea of Asian-American and their cultures.
Annotated Bibliography:
Citation:
Goyette, K., & Xie, Y. (1999). Educational Expectations of Asian American Youths: Determinants and Ethnic Differences. Sociology of Education, 72(1), 22–36. doi:10.2307/2673184
Summary:
This study explored three factors that may explain why Asian American have higher educational expectations than do whites: favorable socioeconomic and background characteristics, demonstrated academic ability, and parents' high expectations. With data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, the authors used linear and logistic multivariate regression models to examine these differences in educational expectations. The analyses indicated that although all Asian American ethnic groups have higher expectations than whites, the higher educational expectations of Asian American groups that are well assimilated into U.S. society are principally influenced by socioeconomic and demographic factors. Parental expectations generally explain a large portion of children's high educational expectations for all Asian American groups.
Reaction:
This article broke a frame where Asian-Americans are always treated as a homogeneous group and emphasized that ethnic differences should be explored. This study concluded three reasons that can be explanatory to Asian Americans' higher educational expectations and, to a certain extent, higher educational achievement. To my surprise, favorable socioeconomic factor plays an important role in affecting students' educational expectations because I just attributed the differences to the mental reasons before and this passage really reminded me that I should analyze problem from different aspects and need to consider as much factors as I can. I learned that parents' socioeconomic status has strong and positive effects on children's achievement. This passage explained in detailed about the difference between Asian-American and white American on educational expectations.
Citation:
Morin, M. (2014, May 5). Study examines achievement gap between Asian American, white students. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-why-do-asian-american-students-perform-better-than-whites-20140505-story.html
Summary:
This article maintained two main differences between Asian-American and white American, that are outperforming white students and less psychologically adjusted and socially engaged in school than their white peers. The reasons behind it are the cultural belief which is there is a strong connection between efforts and achievements and parents' control to reinforce the qualities in positively affecting academic performance. This passage pointed out that there was no convincing evidence that the reason is genetic and denied the influences of family wealth. The poverty rates of Chinese and Vietnamese are higher than they are for whites. However the disadvantaged children of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrant families routinely surpass the educational attainment of their native-born, middle-class white peers. On the other hand, Asian-American students scored lower than white students in terms of positive feeling towards themselves and spend less time with their friends and they may feel stressed because of the high educational expectation from their parents.
Reaction:
Thinking about myself, I feel that that cultural belief is very true. Just as said in this article, we believe that cognitive abilities can be improved by our efforts. And we have many old sayings to emphasize the importance of efforts. However, I didn't know the existence of this belief until I read this article so I guess this belief has already became our subconsciousness.
This passage struck me because of its last sentence, that is "their 'outsider' status may undercut their achievement success and prevent their full integration into American society". I remembered several of my friends who have been to America for a long time and they told me that they felt it is not their home and they are not belong to it. What the differences between those social Asian-American and other ones? Are those social ones really feel they already integrated into American society? How about those who were born here?
Citation:
Asian-American Children: What Teachers Should Know. ERIC Digest. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2014, from http://www.ericdigests.org/1994/teachers.htm
Summary:
This article firstly introduced some basic information about Asian-American by explained 29 distinct subgroups among Asian-American and different reasons for migration. After that, the author analyzed the "whiz kids" image which is a misleading stereotype that masks individuality and conceals real problems. The author emphasized that there are diverse individuals with diverse difficulties in learning among Asian-American students. And their educational achievement cannot be attributed to natural superiority or shared cultural and family values, but rather to the interaction of those cultural and family values with social factors. Next, the author introduced many cultural believes that Asian people hold to explain some behaviors of Asian-American students. This article is unique for putting up with many suggestions for teachers when they teach Asian-American students.
Reaction:
I think this passage explained further about the effect of cultural believes on Asian-American academic and behavioral differences with white students. Respect for elders, deferred gratification, and discipline; value educational achievement, respect authority, feel responsibility for relatives, and show self control; view school failure as a lack of will, and to address this problem by increasing parental restrictions; more dependent, conforming, and willing to place family welfare over individual wishes than are other American children and self-effacement. These are all cultural background of Asian-American students by which you may understand several behaviors of them. Contrary to only concentrating on the bright side, the author maintained that there are many Asian-American students are in need of help from teachers and other people thus we cannot always hold this stereotype and ignoring the differences. Although there are many profound reasons for Asian-American students' lower self-satisfactory and less engagement to classes, teachers for them can still help them to adapt to American cultures and build self-image, such as have peers helping them, encouraging them frequently, learn the differences between cultures and maybe a little bit language to draw their attention and to show interests, alleviating the disjuncture Asian children may experience between school and home.
Citation:
Barbash, F. (April 8). Why Asian American kids excel. It’s not “Tiger Moms.” The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/08/forget-tiger-moms-asian-american-students-succeed-because-its-expected-say-scholars/
Summary:
Yale Law School professor Amy Chua answered the question "Why do Asian American students outpace everyone else academically?" with "tiger mom" a few years ago, but the first part of this article pointed that with all the economic resources at her disposal — she and her husband are Yale professors with highly-educated parents — her children’s success is just as likely the result of socioeconomic and cultural advantages. "The Success Frame and Achievement Paradox: The Costs and Consequences for Asian Americans" authors, Min Zhou, professor of sociology and Asian American Studies at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles, currently on leave at Nanyang Technological University, and Jennifer Lee, professor of sociology at the Univ. of California at Irvine, wrote that a better way to understand Asian American academic success is to look at families who don’t have resources and succeed nonetheless. Their findings are pretty straightforward: Young Asian Americans have all kinds of good role models to emulate. Their communities and families make sure they get extra help when they need it. Their families, even on limited resources, manage to seek out and move to neighborhoods with good schools. And they aspire to success with specific goals in mind: medicine, law, engineering and pharmacy. And they aim for the best schools.
Reaction:
This article raised an unique opinion about the reason behind the higher academic achievement of Asian-American students that is searching for favorable neighborhood for children. And this passage used a lot of examples to further explain the definition of "doing well in school" for parents of Asian-American students. I was reminded many details about that. For example, when I was in elementary school, my mother got angry because my score was 98 instead of 100. I agree with what the author said that is such high standard has positive and negative impact. "If expectations are that high, many young people will try to meet them. They will get into Stanford and they will get that PhD. The downside is that those who fall short — the ‘A-minus’ student’ — wind up feeling alienated from their ethnicity. In short, they feel less Asian and more, well, American."
Citation:
Hard Work Propels Asian-American Students to Head of Class: Study. (n.d.). Consumer HealthDay. Retrieved July 21, 2014, from http://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/education-news-745/hard-work-propels-asian-american-students-to-top-of-class-study-687519.html
Summary:
Comparing the three competing theories to explain the higher academic achievement of Asian-American students, the author agreed with the one that hard work is the main factor. And the author analyzed the reasons that why Asian-American students work harder than other white peers. Asian-Americans have a stronger belief in the rewards of hard work: Asian Americans were more likely than their white classmates to believe a person can learn to be good at math -- and less likely to believe it's an inborn ability. And the "optimism" of recent U.S. immigrants might play a role in Asian Americans' academic success. The favorable resources from community is also mentioned as a reason. At the same time, this passage also pointed that Asian-American students were less likely to say they felt good about themselves, and reported more conflicts with their parents.
Reaction:
This article is the last one that I read and to my surprise, it serves just like a conclusion. It helped me reorganize the information I get so far and make my mind clearer. I agree that hard work is the main factor of academic difference between Asian-American students and white ones, but I think the reasons for hard work should be emphasized as a cultural reason for this achievement gap. Culture really plays an important role in every aspect of our lives. And the socioeconomic factors I think cannot be ignored and neglected because it's the base of any kind of activity of human beings.
Relevance of problem in the U.S.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the Asian American population, including those of multiracial and Hispanic and Latino ancestry, had increased to 18,205,898 by 2011. And among America's major racial categories, Asian Americans have the highest educational qualifications. The demographic growth trend and the percentage of people from different country who get bachelor or higher level college education are showed as the following charts. Thus, to explore the reason for Asian-American students' good performance is necessary and useful for people from other culture to draw lesson from.
There are three explanation competing for the achievement gap between Asian-American students and white students. Some people believe that Asian-Americans' higher educational achievements are decided by something genetic, which is not admitted by most people now because some research found that the gap is widening with time and not big initially. Second theory is that because the socioeconomic status of Asian-American parents are general better, they can provide good resource and model for their kids. However, some scholars think that this is not persuasive because many Asian-American students who live in poverty also do well academically. The third one which is the most acceptable one is cultural reasons. Asian-Americans believe the relationship between hard word and success and they think cognitive ability can be improved by efforts, thus they work harder than their peers. And parents' high standards for them is also a contribution. However, it is also because of some cultural norms that Asian-American students scored lower on self-confidence and spend less time making friends and adapt to American culture difficultly.
Overall reflection
Maybe to many people's surprise, the reason behind the higher academic and lower social performance is just such easy: hard work. And what behind hard work is still the familiar term: culture. Culture affects Asian-American students' thinking, behavior, study and it should be the first reason to attribute when you find differences between Asian-American and white students. Nation's culture is bone-deep for everyone so although there are some Asian-Americans born in America and grow in America, you can still find cultural features on them. There is no good or bad culture. Every kind of culture should be respected.
（a video of Chinese English class: http://v.ku6.com/show/N66XBK-50FqSqIxdPAkwmQ...html) I just put here to show to the class.